This week we reached out to the director, the host of a very refreshing and mesmerizing show, ‘Ms.Traveler, Thamasha’s Diary’. Ms.Traveler is a travel show, with a whimsical and uplifting spirit brought to you by Rupavahini and is hosted by a passionate traveler and an aspiring filmmaker, Thamasha Jayasuriya.
Thamasha is an adventurous spirit, she loves the taste of other cultures, the glory of rejuvenating environments and loves the adrenaline high of chasing sunsets and standing on different hilltops every day. She hopes to become a film director and loves the intricacies of film and directing. She studied Bio Medical Science in Australia and returned to Sri Lanka, only to start Ms.Traveler.
In conversation with Thamasha, here’s what we found out:
Q: How did Ms.Traveler come to be?
A: I had an idea to do a travel show, hosted by a female host, who gets to experience the wonderful adventures that await when traveling. So I decided to make a dummy show and pitched it to Rupavahini and to my absolute delight they liked it.
Q: Why a travel show?
A: Initially when I started I wanted to promote domestic tourism and increase the visibility of our island, however with the fuel crisis when travelling was pretty much halted, we planned our first foreign trip and now my aim is to study other cultures and see what can be absorbed from them to benefit our country.
Also I make sure I find opportunities for Sri Lankans in the places I travel. For example if there are job opportunities I would talk about it and the process of applying in my show.
Q: What inspired you to start the show?
A: I am a fan of travelling, experiencing other cultures, immersing myself in adventure and I have always wanted to be a director and to make my own movie. I saw this as an opportunity to improve my directorial experience while doing what I love.
Q: Tell me about your team?
A: I have a wonderful team, with whom I have worked with before as well. My production team includes talented videographers, editors and they put together the final product.
Q: How does the production process for an episode work?
A: I come up with where we are travelling and the direction where we will be on the trip. This includes all the places we will be visiting. I talk to my team and we have a pre-production where we discuss all the shots and then once the trip is completed we put together an episode with the help of the guidelines provided to us my Rupavahini and voila we are done. The tricky part is finding sponsors for funding purposes but so far have managed.
Q: Where have you travelled so far?
A: The show has aired about 32 episodes so far and we have travelled to many places in Sri Lanka including, Ella, Bentota, Hikkaduwa and visited a collection of countries including Dubai, Baharai, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, France. The trip to Baharain was especially fruitful as we got an opportunity to showcase a clip that promotes tourism in Sri Lanka in their national TV and I used this opportunity to promote our beautiful island with the use of the #SriLankayourjourneyawaits.
Q: What kind of movie would you like to direct?
A: I want to direct a thriller movie, something for Netflix
Q: When you go on foreign tours, how do you manage with the language?
A: As we do not go with tour guides, we do a lot of self-learning about their language, culture etc. it is in fact a wonderful experience. Especially in the case of my trip to Italy, I had an aunt who connected me up with some of her friends around the country and I had to coordinate with them and manage my trip with what I knew about their culture and surroundings.
Q: What was your favourite destination to travel in Sri Lanka?
A: Ella. The weather was just right and the surroundings were just too beautiful. It was one of the best experiences of my life.
Q: What was your favourite country to travel to?
A: My favourite country to travel to was Spain. They have a very calm environment, the people are so nice and the Spanish are experts in Shadow theatre which is my favourite form of theatre. And when I was there I got an opportunity to speak to a shadow director and discuss the possibility and plausibility of creating a production between our two countries.
This was a very special moment for me because the reason why I got into Shadow theatre was due to inspiration from Spanish Shadow theatre. So this trip had a special place in my heart.
Q: Tell us why you chose to study Bio Medical Sscience?
A: To be very honest I studied Bio Medical Science because my mom wanted me to. I was not keen on it. But I did enjoy the subject and am glad I got the opportunity to learn it. I returned to Sri Lanka with the intention of pursuing a career in biomed but my passion took its course and I will never go back. I am so happy to be doing what I love and I am extremely delighted to learn, and experience more in this field.
Q: Are there any travel influencers you love?
A: Yes, I love ‘Taylor cut Films’ and ‘Cold’, they are travel channels done in a very interesting and creative manner and I am constantly inspired by their content. I try to incorporate various quirks they incorporate into my show as well.
Q: What is place you haven’t yet visited but love to go to?
A: I would like to go to Japan. I am fascinated by their culture and Japanese food is fantastic too. I would love to visit and bask in their wonderful culture.